Hopper car



Aug. 4, 1936. H. M. PFLAGER VHOPPER CAR Filed Oct. 6,

1935 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 1936" H. M. PFLAGER 2,049,617

HOPPER CAR Filed Oct. 6, 1933 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 A florvey Au 4, 1936. H M, F A R 2,049,617

III

ulllllmlmnllrlll Aug. 4, 1936. H. M. PFLAGER HOPPER CAR 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Fild Oct. 6, 1955 I Wye/War flamy/Y F/Myer Q QM Patented Aug. 4, 1936 HOPPER C'AR Harry M. Pilager, St. Louis, Mo., assignor to General Steel Castings Corporation, Granite City, 111., a corporation of Delaware Application October 6, 1933, Serial No. 692,363

6 Claims. (o1.1o 243) This invention relates to railway rolling stock and consists particularly in novel convertible hopper car construction.

Heretofore convertible hopper cars have usually been provided with floor doors which cover the hoppers in the closed position and form part of the horizontal flooring, and are tilted against a bodywall when the hoppers are Open and the car is-used for transporting bulk materials. These floor doors are usually made of wooden planks cleated together by metal strips or angles extending across the undersurface of the doorand in the open position of the door the cleats face outwardly. Obviously the sliding of rough bulk materials over such doors results in roughening' and wearing down of the planks due to the abra sive action of the lading, and also the door cleats and edges of the doors form offsets which interfere with the passage of the lading over or past the doors.

One object of my invention is to provide a convertible hopper car in which the floor door hopper covers rest fiat. on the car fioor when the hoppers are open.

Another object is to provide a hopper car having, hoppercovers which in the open position rest on and entirely cover the flooring adjacent the hoppers from wall to wall so that door edge ofisets are eliminated. I

Another object is to provide a hopper covering floor door having one surface, which is exposed in' the open position, formed of a smooth metal sheet to better withstand the abrasive action of rough bulk materials and to facilitate shoveling of such materials towards the hoppers, while the opposite surface of the door, which is exposed when the door is closed, is of wood planking similar to the remainder of the car floor.

Another object is to provide a convertible hopper car with-side door openings and transversely swinging floor doors hinged to the side sills adjacent the door openings, these floor doors being in two parts hinged together along lines at right angles to the side sills whereby one part of each door may be folded upon the other part when the door is open to clear the doorway.

Another object is to provide novel means for supporting the floor door hopper covers.

These objects and others are attained substantially by the structures illustrated in the accompanying drawings in whicheach end of the car.

and end walls and the left half showing the underframe only. Figure 2 is a side view sectioned in part and taken on the line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a vertical transverse section taken on the corresponding section line of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is an enlarged vertical longitudinal sec 'tional View taken on the corresponding section line of Figure 3. Figure 5 is a detail vertical longitudinal section taken on the corresponding section line. of Fig ure 1. Figure '6 is a detail section taken onthe line 6-'-6 of Figure 5.

Figure 7 is'a'top View showing one of the floor door hinges. 1

Figure 8 is a top view of a door handle detail. Figure 9 is a section taken on the corresponding section line of Figure 8.

Figure 10 is a partial View similar to' Figure 1 but showing a modified form of the invention. Figure 11 is a'vertical longitudinal section taken on the line ll--H of Figure 10. 1 Figures 12, 13 and 14 are detail vertical sec tions taken on the corresponding section lines of Figure'lO. :1

Figure 15 is a transverse section showing another modification and taken on the line l5l5 of Figure 16.

Figure 16 is a partial longitudinal section taken on the line "i l6 of Figure 15. In Figures 1 to 9 is illustrated a box car with a convertible hopper floor whereby the car may be utilizedin transporting grains or similar granular materials as well as package freight or bulky articles such as are carried in ordinary'box cars. The underfr'ame illustrated is of integral cast construction including side sills I, end sills 2, bolsters 3, draft sills 4, transoms 5 and 6, center sill l, and hoppers 8,9 and Hi. The hoppers are located in pairs on each side of the center sill and extend to the side sills, the spacesbetween transoms} at the edges of end hoppers 8' and Ill and the end sills of the car being covered by planks H to form a horizontal floor section at The hoppers have substantially horizontally disposed members D defining bottom openings disposed to dump lading vertically. As shown particularly in Figures 3, 4 and 5,

the upper portions of the hopper walls form parts of the underframe transoms 5 and'fi, side sills], and center sill l. The end edge portions of hoppers 8 and ID are angle shaped each including a horizontal flange, as A in Figure 5, for supporting the flooring II and a vertical flange, as B in Figure 5, forming an edge for the flooring and extending to the upper surface of the planks l I.

The car superstructure includes side walls l2 having the usual side door openings I3 fitted with sliding doors l4, end walls l5, and roof 16. The upper portions of the side walls of the hoppers form underframe side sill structure having horizontal webs C, Figures 3 and 6, portions of which constitute the sills of the side doorways. Projecting inwardly from transoms 5 are hinge lugs I! to which are pivotally secured complementary hinge elements 18 on the floor doors l9. Each floor door is formed of a metal web 20 having surrounding flanges 2| forming a recess for receiving reinforcing planks 22. The door hinge elements [8 are integral with and project from the inner flanges 2|. r v 3 Four floor doors are provided and in the closed position these doors rest at the center upon the center sill I and at the sides upon brackets 23 integral with and projecting inwardly from the side sills. In this position the planks 22 form continuations of the end flooring ll whereby the entire floor of the car is horizontal and is covered with planks. Handles 24, set beneath the surface of the planks 22, are provided to facilitate raising the doors. In the open position the floor doors rest fiat upon and entirely cover the end flooring II with the smooth metal web 20 presented upwardly. Thus in the open positionof the doors, the walls of hoppers 8, 9 and I0 and the webs 20 cooperate to form smooth metal flooring extending from side to' side and from end to end of the car. Each'door l9 extends only half way across the car so that in opening a door a man can stand on the opposite .door or on the underframe. r

Projecting from an inner wall of each of the hoppers is a pair of perforated lugs 25 supporting a transverse shaft 26 and an arm 21 at the lower extremity of which is pinned a link 28 which, in turn, is secured tothe sliding hopper door 29. Rotation of the shaft 26 by means of crank 30 will slide the hopper doors 29 to their opened or closed positions within the guides 3|.

In Figures 10 to 14, the underframe is provided with pairs of hoppers 32,33 and 34 and hopper covering floor doors 35 hinged to the side sills 36. In order that the side door openings 31 may be clear when the fioor doors are open, the lat- .ter are each'formed in two parts hinged together,

as at 38, along a line at right angles to the side sills. When the doors are raised against the side walls the inner parts 39 may be folded upon the outer parts 40, as shown in Figure-10. The floor doors are held in the open position by clips 4| pivoted to the side walls. The side sills 36 are built up as at 36a within the doorways so as to form door sills extending flush with the top surface of the flooring 39. The structures 36a also form portions of the outer edges of the flooring when the cover 35 is closed and the upper portions of the outside hopper walls 33 when cover 35 is open. The remaining parts of the structure may be similar to the corresponding parts of the previous form.

In Figures 15 and 16, only four hoppers 44 are provided, two on each side of the door opening 42, and the portion 45 of the flooring between the doors is permanently secured to the underframe.

Each hinged door 43 covers one hopper only. Thus, one or more of the hoppers may be opened and 'aworkman may enter through a side door and stand near the edge of the open hopper and shovel the lading material thereinto. In the previous forms, each hinged hopper cover extends over more than one hopper.

In each of the forms described the metal portion of the floor door is presented outwardly when the door is open, in which position the vehicle serves as a hopper car. Bulk lading may thus slide more freely over the doors and in Figures 1 to 9 bulk material may be easily shoveled from the door in the end portions of the car into the center hoppers. Moreover, the floor doors, in this form, in particular, in the open position occupy a minimum of space within the car and since the edges thereof are flush with the side and end walls of the car, none of the lading can get caught between the doors and the car walls. When the hopper covers are closed, the entirecar fioor is covered with wooden planks, which is desirable in certain cases, particularly where the car is manually loaded and unloaded due to the fact that the wood is less slippery and easier on the feet of the'workers and also the planks serve as insulation.

Various features of the underfrarnes shown are illustrated and claimed in co-pending applicationsBender, Serial No. 583,825, filed December 30, 1931, now Patent No. 1,943,294; Pflager, Hallquist and Sheehan, Serial No. 674,264, filed June 5, 1933, and Pflager and Hallquist, Serial No. 482, 0 34, filed September 15,1930, to which reference is hereby made for further description. Obviously the various details shown may be modified as will occur to those skilled in the art and exclusive use of all such modifications as come within the scope of the appended claims is contemplated.

I claim: g

1. In a hopper car, a superstructure wall including a door opening, underframing including a hopper, and a hopper cover swingable toward said opening to a position at rest against the superstructure wall adjacent said opening, a portion of said cover being independently movable in the open position thereof to fully clear said door opening. 7

2. In a hopper car, a superstructure wall in- .cluding a door opening, underframing including a hopper extending substantially to said wall adjacent said opening, and a hopper cover hinged along one edge to said underframe adjacent said wall, said cover being further hinged along a line extending normal to said edge to permit independent movement of a portion thereof in the open position to clear said door;

3. In a railway car, a series of hoppers, and hopper cover structure including a portion hinged at one side of said hoppers to swing upwardly and transversely of the car, and a portion hinged at one end of said first-mentioned portion to swing thereon upwardly and longitudinally of the car into overlapping relation with said firstmentioned portion. J

4. In a hopper car, an intermediate hopper, hoppers adjacentthe ends of said intermediate hopper, cover structure for the last-mentioned hoppers hinged at the sides thereof to swing upwardly and transversely of the car, and cover structure for the intermediate hopper hinged to the ends of said first-mentioned cover structure to swing upwardly thereon and longitudinally of the car.

5. In a railway car, adjacent hoppers, cover structure for one of said hoppers hinged at one side thereof to swing transversely of the car, and coverstructure for the other of said hoppers and cover structure for said intermediate hopper divided between the ends thereof with the divided portions hinged respectively to the adjacent cover structures of said second-mentioned hoppers to swing thereon longitudinally of the car.

HARRY M. PFLAGER; 

